Four Years for Teen's Part in Fatal Crash

MDR

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I must admit I have very mixed feelings about this. Was the state responsible ... of course it was, that child shouldn't have been on the streets. Was the _child_ responsible, the law says no .... I don't know, should he bear some of the responsiblity?? Where the parents partially reponsible ... perhaps the child is mentally ill, perhaps he was never displined as a child, its hard to know and its hard to allocate blame to probabily honest people.

With two Garda dead and their 'killer' (perhaps the state and therefore the people are equally responsible) only recieving four years, I find it hard to feel that justice has been done. Perhaps this is a crappy thing, and there is no way to resolve the conflict of emotions I feel about it. All I am left with is fear, for my brother, when he picks up his truncheon and goes out tonight or tomorrow etc, to try to do hist best to earn a wage and keep the peace, will some other yahoo, who now feels that the justice system has shown a Garda's life is worthless and seek to take my brother or one of of colleuges for whatever reason.

BuffyBot

Originally posted by MDR
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I must admit I have very mixed feelings about this. Was the state responsible ... of course it was, that child shouldn't have been on the streets. Was the _child_ responsible, the law says no .... I don't know, should he bear some of the responsiblity?? Where the parents partially reponsible ... perhaps the child is mentally ill, perhaps he was never displined as a child, its hard to know and its hard to allocate blame to probabily honest people.

There is a few seperate issues here I think. I think the first is that this kid was in the car, rather than driving it. That doesn't excuse what happened or lessen the role he had in it, but I think we must keep in mind he was not actually the one driving the vehicle. He should not have even been there, therefore I think the state has to take some responsibility. He should have been in detention, but he wasn't.

I think we have to stand back from this and be a bit more dispassionate than we sometimes are. This guy is 16 now, 15 when it happened. He's going to lose a portion of his life just for being there.

He is responsible for his own actions, and deserves a sentence for being part of the chain of events that led up to the tragedy. It is a sad reflection though that had there been adequate detention facilities for him in the first place, he would not have been there, or had a chance to be involved.

Hobart

The killer is responsible. The state did not force him to get into that car. At 15 he had the sense to know that what he was doing was wrong. It's a tough lesson for the kid, but, hopefully one he will never forget.

On the detention side of things I agree that if he had been 'locked up' he would not have been in the car at the time, however, that is not to blame the state. He should not have been in that car. He should not have been hanging around with the people that stole that car. He is responsible for his own actions, even at 15.